On the question on whether the school board airs its meetings or not it must be said that they do.
Looking at the local public channel's schedule, posted at the city's website, one can see that a schedule effective as of 12/31/11 says that the November school board meeting will be aired as follows:
Tuesdays from 6 AM to 7 AM and from 3 PM to 4 PM.
Wednesdays from 5:30 PM to 6:30 PM.
Now, what gets air and who decides what gets air is not known to me. What is known to me is:
The hours are not exactly parent friendly, especially if you are a working parent. And meetings usually last a whole lot more than 1 hour.
To those who want to tape meetings, here is the district's policy on taping meetings (p.2). Taped meetings could be posted at You Tube.
9 comments:
The times provided in your blog Maria to me are made to still keep the commmunity and parents out of the loop. What parent or guardian would be up at 6 or 7 am looking at the board minutes when their child/children school starts at 8:10am? And 3 or 4 pm when most people are at work? Then finally 5:30 or 6:30pm? I work in NY and I would never get a chance to see any of these showing becase I am out of my hous by 6:30am. And lastly I don't have comcast which provides me with 0 chance of seeing any of these recordings.
However, on the another note I took a look at the monthly enrollment reports for September and October for Plainfield Public Schools and there is no merit to the call for an immediate resturcture of the schools. The student body for some schools only went up at 1% and some went down so the reason for the restructure is baseless and not the real reason.
I personally feel that nothing should be down until we find a permanet Supterintendent and have a more thorough investigation done with better quailifed person than the current administration and the board. Their lack of experience and knowledge of rules and regulations based on the various lawsuit tells me that they should not make any more alterations until be take care of our leadership problem.
This district has been making too many quick decisions without weighing the outcome. A perfect example of their lack of judgment is the current principal change; giving the principals less than a few weeks to pack up and leave shows they are too quick to make executive decisions without thought process.
I completely agree with 2:30!
The board meetings should be immediately posted and archived on the Internet.
And, in this day of "Data-Driven" everything, where are the district's RUBRICS for judging employment candidates for each job description?
As I visit my child's school, I see RUBRICS hanging on EVERYTHING (including fingerpainting projects)!!! So where are the rubrics from the board & hiring committee???? Or, if THEY don't have to use rubrics, WHAT DO THEY USE? The public needs to see and understand the rubrics/other because it seems PPS best knows how to pick well-dressed SLICK STINKERS who cost us a ton of money, law suits, educational disasters and BAD PRESS!
The community needs to know (realtime!!!):
1. Who applies (each & every applicant for superintendent & ALL positions)
2. The criteria used to judge the applicants
3. The score for each applicant
4.Who (names & titles) is involved in the choosing, interviewing & expanded hiring process
It seems, although the public can read PPS Policies, WE REALLY NEED to have a Procedure/Regulation for EVERYTHING!!! Clearly, we can't trust the board and district to get anything important right...
9:15 and everyone else, the district uses a rubric and a scoring system. Please tell me what other public and/or private entity post items 1-4 and makes it available to the community.hiring should and has always been the responsibility of those in charge. It is not a community thing and couldn't be. People who apply and don't get the job deserve privacy unless THEY want to share it. I do agree that policy and regulations are necessary especially when people make rediculous demands such as what you have outlined.
Hate to be the one to bring facts to this blog but the Board doesn't set the schedule of when the meetings get aired. That would be the City. If you want change contact the people who control it.
Who knew, now YOU do.
9:15 per your post, please share the district's rubric and scoring system for hiring. And, kindly indicate how the public would access/link to that/those documents in the future, in case they are updated.
Also, what is an acceptable procedure for notifying the district or other proper authorities when it seems that there is non-compliance with standing rules/regs/policy/laws/grant mandates and the like. Admittedly, it is a difficult thing to tactfully broach. And, many times, admins & other employees would like to have the law followed, while remaining anonymous and thereby keeping their jobs.
Please understand that we just want to avoid the costly (to children and budgets) mistakes of the recent past. Don't be offended, we truly treasure wonderful and transparent administrators!
Thank you.
Totally agree that the hiring process should NOT be up for public display-that would be so embarrassing for someone who performed poorly during the interview process. Plus, the interview is just 1 consideration for hiring. What experience a canidate has and their educational background also play into the overall picture. Someone with little experience might be a smart talking dynamic person-but what does their resume say about their experience in the areas that they are being hired for? I think we should leave the hiring to experts in the field-not the community. This isn't an election nor should it be.
There is a rubric, process, and standardized format that is used to interview. HR helps vet candidates and ensures that certs are held and correct for the job being applied for. The interview teams ask and grade the same questions for all candidates. They are then ranked and a recommendation is made. The district also tracts demographic info to ensure EOE regs are followed.
Thank you, 10:11PM. The information you provided is encouraging and appreciated. However, because those rubrics etc. are not available on the district's website, the public would have to OPRA the documents in order to examine them. An OPRA request must be as precise as possible, so exact names of documents is always a big plus. Therefore, please provide the official names of the rubric(s), process/regulation, and standardized form that is used to interview candidates. Also provide the official name of the interview team/panel/committee, so that the names and qualifications of the individuals sitting on said panel can also be OPRAed.
Thanks again!
It is all in one packet. The forms have been made available to the community and staff who sit on the panels. The question to ask is whether this process is followed at central office vs. schools. I world on a panel at my school and the principal provided the documents and had a PTO member there as well. I wouldn't know if the central office jobs that were discussed here followed the same process. The actual packets once filled out are most likely confidential as the interviewees wouldn't be asked to sign consent to release it. In the panel I sat on, the principal came to a consensus about the selection (they did discuss reference call and other vetting would be done after the interview day) with the panel and that ended up being he candidate that was selected. I do want to say I have no knowledge on how recent interviews at other schools and boards are conducted. All forms said Plainfield, not the school I work at.
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